Petition to change city's homeless feeding law comes up short

Activists seeking to change city charter to allow the distribution of free food on public property without needing City Hall permission failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, City Secretary Anna Russell announced in a memo Thursday, more than two years after the petition was submitted.

The petition held about 34,890 signatures. Russell's office reviewed each name and found 17,514 belonged to registered Houston voters and were accompanied by the required identifying information, leaving the petition about 2,500 signatures short of the threshold needed to force a vote.

Activists submitted the petition Aug. 13, 2012, responding to an ordinance City Council passed that spring outlawing the charitable feeding of more than five people anywhere in Houston without the advance written permission of the property owner. Mayor Annise Parker deemed it too late for the petition to be certified in time for the November ballot that year and because charter amendments can only go to voters every two years, there was no immediate time constraint to issue a decision, she said. The move irked petition organizers.

Randall Kallinen, a civil rights attorney who led the petition effort, said he was "extremely disappointed" the effort fell short.

"To take away this right of the people to share with other people really is terrible thing to do," Kallinen said. "It's just a horrific law that is just very cold and impersonal."

City officials have long maintained the intent of the ordinance is to better coordinate and ensure the sanitation of mass feedings.

Parker reiterated that justification Thursday, saying the law has worked well. She said the city did not anticipate a lawsuit from petition organizers.

"We have 55 different organizations coordinating their delivery of food and that have met the minimum requirements," Parker said. "No citations, no complaints. I think it's fulfilled its purpose. Whatever the reasoning behind the petition-gatherers, I think the ordinance has proven to work."

But petition organizers like Nick Cooper, a volunteer with Houston's Food Not Bombs, said the issue should be taken up by voters. Cooper said he was surprised to hear the petition had failed given the response of residents.

"The people of Houston we approached were just unanimous against this law," Cooper said. "We didn't have to talk people into it, we didn't have to make up anything."

Councilman Michael Kubosh, a key organizer of the petition drive, repeatedly has asked Parker about the status of the signature count since joining the council last January.

Kubosh said he got a call from the mayor alerting him to Russell's memo but had not yet seen the letter late Thursday.

"If the threshold wasn't met, then we need to look and try to figure out what went wrong on our part," Kubosh said. "I don't want to have to accept it, but I'll have to accept it and we'll just have to figure out what 6to do next."